Opinion: Tech Industry Shifts From Building Products to Building Personal Brands

A developer-authored opinion piece on DEV Community argues that the tech industry is undergoing a significant identity shift, with developers increasingly becoming content creators, YouTubers, and personal brand builders. The author observes that agencies once focused on building websites and software have pivoted to offering personal branding services. A growing culture of online courses and tutorials has emerged, where knowledge is rapidly repackaged and resold, sometimes by people who learned the subject only recently. The writer attributes this trend to a market reality where technical skill alone is no longer sufficient for visibility or career growth. Despite a sardonic tone, the author stops short of assigning blame, framing the shift as an inevitable evolution of job roles in the digital age.